The South Circular Garden is a local community food gardening project on the corner of South Circular Road and Place avenue in Dublin, Ireland. We have a derelict site on loan from ST Salvage Company that we have converted into a community food garden This is a continuation of the initial successful Dolphins Barn Community squatted food garden that was on the canal from 2005 -2007 contact Willie Brennan: 087 958 3797

Sunflower

Monday, March 14, 2011

Short Irish Documentary to Premiere at Mecal Pro in Barcelona this April 2011

Film Title: Car Park CultivationTagline: Turning tarmac into dinner!

About the film:The plot on the busy South Circular Road in Dublin city was an abandoned car parking lot. It was covered in old, scrubby tarmac and, like countless other sites in Ireland in 2007, it was in the queue for planning permission to develop it into a 3-story apartment block. Then thelandowner gave permission for a group of residents to use the site as a temporary community garden...This short, site-specific documentary is a film about the people who have transformed this abandoned car park in the city into a thriving oasis of biodiversity. They acknowledge some of the challenges that come from working communally, and they gently disclose some of the quiet joys they reap from getting their hands dirty each week with other folk from their neighbourhood.

Longer Analysis:The charming simplicity of this community garden belies deeper, less obvious, socio-political complexities. In growing their own food these neighbours casually turn their back on the global food market with it’s escalating prices and carbon emissions; by growing organic food and seed saving they resist the genetic ownership and the copyrighting of nature; and by growing food communally in a voluntary, not-for-profit way in a small plot in Dublin earmarked for development since 2007 one could nearly believe that the corpse of the property-focused Celtic tiger just might make excellent compost. This is more than vegetables, it is spores of resistance, germinating action and blossoming community.

Due to Ireland’s economic downturn it is unlikely the apartment development on this piece of land will go ahead any time in the near future, and this garden is now part of a budding network of community gardens that are flourishing in disused plots and abandoned sites around the country.

South Circular Road Community Food Garden Project

The South Circular Road Community Food Garden Project started in April 2007. We have a derelict site on loan from ST Salvage Company that we have converted into a community food garden. This is a continuation of the initial successful Dolphins Barn Community squatted food garden that was on the canal from 2005 -2007.